On
Friday, or day 5 of the trip, Wendell and I woke up in Gallup,
New Mexico. If you ever venture to this fair western city, I
suggest you stay at the Road Runner. We had a lovely night's rest
at this very clean and not at all smelly establishment. The rooms
were your standard hotel room -- color cable TV, two double beds, cinder block walls and green shag carpet.
You don't see many nice
hotels these days with green shag covering the floor. The demise
of shag carpet has been slow but steady since the last shag living
in the wild died in 1975. Now days farmers and ranchers raise the
shag on free range farms throughout the South Midwest. The price
for these corn fed shag hides are so high, carpetiers must turn to
other cheaper and more plentiful resources. Where would the
American floor be without the Vinyl Elk of Alaska, the Hard Wood
Duck of New England, or the Astroturf sloth from the rain forest
of South America?

Around checkout time, we left the Road Runner and
headed out to find breakfast. We stopped a few miles
away and went in to find a table at a place called
Earl's.
As we waited for breakfast, a young native American girl
came up to the table with a tray of jewelry, so I tried one. If
you decide to ever try Earl's famous beaded jewelry, I would
suggest swallowing them whole. I nearly chipped a tooth on an
amethyst. The little girl wouldn't leave the table, even though I
told her I didn't want anymore. Wendell then explained the tyke
was selling the items on the tray, not offering them for my
consumption. I didn't think I should have to pay, I felt I had
been taken advantage of, but since my people had reduced her
people to hocking crap table to table at local restaurants, I paid
for the broach I had swallowed.